What's Going on This Year?
by OCD Manga Geek
Summary: Harry's school years through the eyes of a Slytherin girl. "Why is Potter always going on these life threatening stunts? Can't he just be a normal student?"
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Harry Potter**

The day is the 1st of August and it is the day my life changed. I grew up in a muggle home with my mother and twin brother, Thomas. My mother is an author, and when Professor McGonagall informed us that my brother and I were enrolled since birth at Hogwarts, I could see a gleam in her eye, the one that meant she had an idea for a new book. My father ran out on my mother as Thomas and I were nearing our 2nd birthday. One day he was playing with us on the floor, the next, he was gone and our mother didn't even know where he had gone.

When I had become old enough, I ask Mum what our father looked like. She told me he was darkly handsome, and that he had an air of 'casual elegance'. She told me I looked more like him, with my wavy, raven hair and high cheekbones, though I got my brown eyes from her, while Thomas took after her looks, with his blonde hair and brown eyes. She had met him in a bar, and he had convinced her to give him her number, before leaving drunkenly with his friends. But that's a story for a different time.

McGonagall explained everything from where we could get wands to the day term started. When she finished explaining, she handed Thomas and I each a letter. I looked at the parchment in my hands, handwriting in green ink curling into my address.

I faintly heard McGonagall confirm whether we would be attending or not, while I was completely absorbed by my letter.

_Ms. G. Dedrick_

_The bedroom on the left_

_100 Copse Wood Way_

_Northwood_

_Greater London_

She told us that everything she had explained was in the letters, in case we forgot. With that she left with a small goodbye and that she would see us on September 1st.

When she had left, Thomas and I both ripped open our letters.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock._

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Ms. Dedrick,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl no later than 31 July._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

Our mother was muttering to herself and writing down notes for her new idea.

I had read my letter three times over before turning to Thomas. We simultaneously turned to our mother, "Mummy, can we go to shopping today? Please!"

She looked up from her notepad. First at us, then at the clock. "I have a meeting at 11:30." We both looked at the clock, 11:15. "That should only take half an hour, then we can go, ok?" We nod, then run off to occupy ourselves for the next 45 minutes. I try to do a puzzle, but end up giving up and just staring at the clock, willing time to move faster. When our mother gets done with her meeting, Thomas and I are both standing by the door with our shoes, ready to go. She sighs, "Ok, just a mo'. I need to find my keys."

In the car, Thomas and I bounce excitedly. There is a giant CD store that I recognize McGonagall mentioning. "There it is Mummy!" And there it was, sandwiched between the giant CD store and a book store. We park around the block and while we walk to the little building, our mother holds onto our hands so we don't go running off. We get to the front, and our mother is a little sceptical. It is an inn called The Leaky Cauldron. Thomas and I pull her inside, "Come on! We have to go shopping." I had memorized what we were supposed to do to get to the magical shops, so I pull her through the front door and straight to the back.

As we walk through, there is a large crowd gathered around a giant man and what looks like a boy our age. I wonder who he is briefly, but continue pulling my mother through the room. We get to a courtyard closed off by a brick wall. I count the bricks and tap the one Professor McGonagall had told us about. At once, the wall began opening up to a gleaming alley way. I looked for a sign and saw one almost right above us, 'Diagon Alley' it read.

"Of course you can remember that, but if I tell you to do the dishes, you oh so conveniently forget." My mother sighs. "Ok, we need to go to the wizard bank first, correct?" Thomas and I nod and we set off towards a gleaming marble building at the end of the alley.

We go through the slightly difficult process of changing muggle money to the wizards coins. Our mother gave each of us 60 galleons, which came out to about £30 each. "Now, make sure you stick together. Get everything on your lists. Did you guys see the ice cream shop when we were walking?" We nodded. "Good, I'll be waiting for you there. Have fun and be safe. If you need more money, come find me." We wave and she walks back the ice cream shop.

Thomas looks at me, "What first?" I look through the list. We need eight different books, a cauldron, a wand, potions ingredients, robes, a telescope, scales, crystal phials, and a pet if we like.

"Let's start with the cauldron and wand." I suggest, "They're probably the two most expensive things." We head to Ollivander's first. McGonagall had said that he had the best wands. We walked into the dusty shop and looked around. The walls were stacked high with all kinds of boxes.

"Hello?" Thomas called into the dark shop.

"Hello." A quiet voice says from behind the counter. "First years at Hogwarts I presume." We nod nervously and he gestures for us to come closer. "Who wants to try first?" He looks at us briefly, but when he sees we aren't doing anything, he takes it upon himself to choose me. "What's your name, child?"

"G-Gracelynn, sir." I reply nervously.

"And are your parents magic, Gracelynn?" I shake my head. "Ok," He says as he walks up and down a small corridor pulling seemingly random boxes down. He comes back to the counter. "Let's try this one first. 10 and 3/4 inches maple with a hair from a unicorn's tail core." I took hold of the wand and it was almost immediately taken from my hand as Mr. Ollivander mumbled something along the lines of, "Much too long, wrong core, good wood though." He grabbed another box and pulled the wand out, "9 and 1/2 inches maple and a dragon's heartstring core." I took a hold of it and felt a rush of power run through me. "Yes, that is the wand for you."

"Thank you sir" I pulled out 7 galleons and hand the coins to him. Then I stepped back for Thomas. He stepped up to the counter and looked at the wands in awe.

Ollivander pulled one more wand down from the wall and pulled it out of the box for Thomas. "11 inches yew and dragon heartstring." Thomas grabbed hold of it, and Ollivander did the same thing he did for me, took it right back out of his hand. He handed him a different wand. "11 and 3/4 inches walnut with unicorn hair." Again, as soon as Thomas held it, Ollivander pulled it away and found a new wand. 11 and 1/2 inches willow with the feather from the tail of a phoenix." As soon as Thomas held it, I could tell that was his wand. "Thank you for your patronage!" Ollivander calls to us as we walk out.

We headed towards the Apothecary next, but I stopped us so we could buy parchment, quills, and ink. Then we went to the Apothecary to get our cauldrons and potions ingredients. When we walked in, we were overtaken by an overwhelming smell of mold and the likes. Looking around, I saw beetles, quills, dead lizards, and many other things sitting on display. We walked up to the counter, and waited for the shopkeeper to notice us. She turned around and nearly dropped an entire bowl of what appeared to be eggs of some sort. "I'm sorry dearies. What can I help you with?"

"Um," Thomas stammered, "We're first years at Hogwarts and we need two pewter, size 2 cauldrons, scales, crystal phials, and basic potions ingredients." He read from his letter.

"One set for each of you?" The woman asked kindly. At our nods she bustled around the shop, gathering ingredients and placing them inside two cauldrons. After about 5 minutes she stops. "That's everything. That will be 15 galleons each." We hand over our money and leave the store, each lugging a small, but relatively heavy, cauldron.

"We should drop these off with Mum," Thomas suggests. "Plus, I don't know if we need trunks." I nod and we make slow progress down the street. We stop about halfway down and I look up to see we are in front of the bookstore and I read the sign 'Flourish and Blotts'.

"Thomas," he looks up at me. "I'm going to go in and get our books." He nods and sits on the edge of his cauldron. I walk into the store and look around. There are floor to ceiling bookcases stuffed full of all kinds of books.

An attendant rushes up to me. "First year at Hogwarts?" He asks.

"Yes, sir. I need two sets of the books, please." He looks at me suspiciously. "My brother is outside." I explain, pointing out the window. I see Thomas talking to the giant man from before in the inn. I turn back to the attendant and he has me stay right where I am while he fetches the books.

I pay for them and attempt to carry them all out at once. I almost topple over and drop three of the books. I try to pick them up but I keep dropping the books. A hand appears and helps me pick up the books. I look up to see the boy who was with the giant man in the Leaky Cauldron. "Hello." he says, "Let me help you with this."

He helps me carry the books out and I stand next to Thomas' cauldron while he pulls his books from the stack and tosses them into his cauldron. When he is done, I dump my own books into my cauldron. I turn back to the boy, "Thank you for your help."

"No problem." He replies, "I'm Harry Potter by the way." He tells us and sticks out his hand.

Thomas shakes his hand, "Thomas Dedrick."

I do the same, "Gracelynn Dedrick. I go by Gracie, though." Harry looks slightly surprised by our reaction, or lack thereof, to his name.

I then look to the giant man questioningly. Realizing what I am waiting for, he introduces himself, "Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of the keys at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Are the two of you first years?" We nod. "That's great! So's Harry." Hagrid glances down at his pocket watch. "Oh, we need to get going. Do you two need any help?"

I'm about to say that we didn't, but Thomas interrupted me, "Could you help us get our cauldrons back to the ice cream shop? That's where our mother is waiting for us." Hagrid gladly helps us and carries both cauldrons easily by himself. He sets them down by our mother, quickly introduces himself before excusing himself.

"Are you guys done?" Our mother asks.

"Not quite," I say, "We still need the uniform."

"Don't forget the pet," she reminds us. "Wouldn't want you missing out on anything."

"We'll be back soon," Thomas calls as we walk to Madam Malkin's Robes For All Occasions.

Once inside, we are greeted by an older witch who I assume is Madam Malkin. "Just starting at Hogwarts, dears?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"This way my dears." she calls into the shop and a younger witch comes to help her. She has each of us stand on a small stool so she can fit the robes for us. There is another boy on the third stool to my left. He has sleek blond hair and a sharp, pointed face.

We stand in silence for a few seconds. The boy then pretends like he didn't notice we were there until right then. "Hello. You going to Hogwarts as well?" I nod. "What house do you figure you'll be in? I'm positive I'll be in Slytherin. My whole family has been."

"I'm not sure." I say. That was one detail I didn't remember from what McGonagall had told us. "I mean, no one really does, right?"

He shrugs and begins talking again. "Where are your parents? Is it just you and him? Or do you have someone else?"

"Our mother is waiting at the ice cream shop." I felt really stupid saying that to him, I should really learn the name.

"Florean Fortescue's? That place is great. My mother is picking up my books and father is buying me a broom." He made a face that made him look like a spoiled brat.

"But," Thomas finally spoke, "aren't first years not allowed to have their own brooms?"

"So?" The boy replied, "You have to break some rules to have fun."

Thomas was about to protest when the boy's attendant spoke up, "You're all done dear." He took off the robes and she folded them up and wrapped them in brown paper.

"You two are done as well, dearies." Madam Malkin told us. We had gotten the robes and winter cloak fitted as well as the hat and gloves here. We paid and walked out with our packages of robes. The blond boy waited for us to walk out and he continued to talk to us.

"Are you done with your shopping? I must be, my parents did most of my shopping while I was being fitted."

"We just have to get our pets, then we're done." Thomas replied.

"I know exactly where to go for that!" he exclaimed. "The places are right next to each other." With that he took off down the street. We sprinted to keep up with him. We finally stopped outside two stores 'Eeylop's Owl Emporium' and 'Magical Menagerie'.

"Ok," Thomas turned to me. "I'm getting an owl."

"I'm getting a cat." I tell him. "So get your owl and meet me out here." I go inside Magical Menagerie. Looking around the walls I see all kinds of animals. I see an assortment of lizards, toads, cats, and rats. When I glance around again, I see a white kitten sleeping on one of the lower shelves.

A woman pops up from behind the counter, "Hello. What can I help you with?"

"Can I get that white kitten?" I ask while pointing at it.

"Of course, my dear." She pulls a basket from under the counter and walks over to the kitten. Carefully she picks him up and places him in the basket. He shifts a little and stays asleep. "10 galleons." I reach for my money when a hand places 10 galleons on the counter for me. I turn expecting to see Thomas, but it is the blond boy. I didn't even know he had followed me in.

"I hope we can be friends at Hogwarts. You and your brother seem pretty cool." I'm speechless and barely get a thank you out before he walks out the door.

I turn back to the woman. "I don't think I've ever heard a Malfoy say that. And mind you, I've known a lot of Malfoys." She places food and treats in the basket with the kitten. "There you go dear. Be careful with him." I thanked her and walked back out of the store.

Thomas was waiting for me with an eagle owl in a cage. "Let's go home." He says, placing an arm on my shoulder. I nod. Today has been full of excitement.

We get back to Florean Fortescue's and our mother was waiting for us. She admires our pets, then we head back to our car, somehow managing to carry two cauldrons, an owl cage, and a kitten in a basket. We get home and we unpack everything from the car into our front hallway, then up to our rooms.

"We'll need to get you guys trunks," Mum tells us once everything is upstairs. "But first, let's call it a night.

The next morning, we went to muggle London and got two trunks. I managed to get everything into the trunk, but I left it open so I could read my text books. We still had a full month until we needed to be at King's Cross Station to catch our train. I decided to name my kitten Merwyn, a name I found in one of my books.

It was August 31st and I searched my entire room, making sure I had all my books and clothes in my trunk. I locked it up and then I found Merwyn's food. I unlocked my trunk, stuck the food in, and locked it again. I headed down the hall to Thomas' room. Knocking lightly, I open the door to find chaos. "Thomas, you do realize we leave tomorrow?"

"I know! That's why I'm looking for my trunk!" He exclaims.

"How do you lose a trunk?" I almost shout as I begin picking up his clothes and folding them nicely. Before long, I find his trunk underneath Demosthenes' cage. "Thomas, did you look under the cage?"

"No! That's a brilliant idea." He turns and there I am, pointing at his trunk. "Oh, thanks." I help him clean up and make sure everything is in his trunk. He locks Demosthenes' cage, "I'll let you out tomorrow when we get to Hogwarts." He tells the owl. "Ok, we've got everything packed. Time to remind Mum."

We head downstairs to Mum's study. "Mum," I say. She looks up. "We have to be at King's Cross tomorrow at 11am."

"Right!" she says. "I wrote that down!" She begins to frantically search through her papers to prove it. "Here it is. We'll leave about 10 o'clock. Don't want to be late."

"We're going to bed now." I lean down and kiss her cheek while Thomas kisses her other cheek. "See you in the morning."

"See you in the morning." She says, already shuffling through her papers to find the one she was working on before.

I walk slightly behind Thomas as we head up the stairs. When we turn to go to our separate rooms, I stop him. "Are you nervous?"

He nods, relief showing in his face, "What about you?"

"Yeah, I don't know if I'm ready for this." He pulls me into a hug. "What if I don't get sorted? What if I can't be sorted? What if I fail and have to come home?" Tears begin silently streaming down my face.

"Hey, remember the time we were arguing over who could blow out the candles on our third birthday?" I nod, "Do you remember what finished the argument?"

"Of course, the cake exploded and we flew away from each other." I kind of understand where he is going with this.

"If I do say so myself, I think that was some pretty powerful accidental magic." He says, "And we were three. So maybe we're hugely powerful." I smile and nod. "Are you less afraid now?"

"Yes, thank you." I wipe my tears with the back of my hand.

"No problem. That's what are big brothers for anyway." He shrugs.

"You are two minutes and four seconds older than me. That does not make you older and wiser."

"Whatever, I'll see you in the morning." He yawns over his shoulder.

I go to my room and try to sleep, but end up tossing and turning the whole night. I roll out of bed at 9 o'clock the next morning. I double check that I have everything in my trunk and that it is locked up. I stumble down the stairs for breakfast. I peek into Mum's study and find her passed out on her desk. I nudge her to wake up. "Mum, it's 9 o'clock we have to leave in an hour. You need to get up."

She waves her arm to fend me off, "Just 5 more minutes." she mumbles.

"Mum, you need to get up now." I shake her a little bit.

Her eyes open slightly and she sits up and stretches. "Fine, I'm up. Are you happy?"

"Yes." I tell her. "Now go get ready!" She stumbles up the stairs and I walk into the kitchen. Thomas is at the table, eating a bowl of cereal. "Were you going to let her sleep as long as she wanted?" I ask as I pour my own bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice.

"No, but today was your day to wake her up." I glare at him. "Don't worry. If you had slept much later I would have woken both of you up." We sit in silence eating our cereal.

At about 9:20, Mum walks in carrying Merwyn. "I can't believe I let you get a cat." She hands him to me, "He was trying to climb the curtains, again." She makes herself a cup of coffee and sits down with us. "I can't believe you guys are going to be gone all the way through next June. How am I going to get up in the mornings without you guys?"

"Set an alarm," I suggest.

"Right," she smiles, "I could do that. Now what platform are you guys leaving from?"

"Platform 9 and 3/4" I recite. McGonagall had told us that we needed to run at the wall between platforms 9 and 10. We would pass through the wall and The Hogwarts Express would be waiting for us.

Mum looks at the stove clock, 9:55. "Well, we best be getting your things into the car." We all stand up and Merwyn tries to make a break for it. "No, make sure he gets in the car. I don't want him ripping up my curtains while you two are gone."

I put him in his basket and tie it shut. "Don't worry, I'll let you out on the train." I lug my trunk down the stairs and out the door. The boot is open, with Thomas' trunk already in there. I lift the trunk and set it on top of Thomas'. I go back to my room to grab Merwyn's basket and wait at the bottom of the stairs. I hear Thomas crashing around in his room. Mum joins me at the bottom of the stairs and we look up the stairs, waiting for Thomas. He finally walks out, hair mussed and frantically making sure Demosthenes' cage is locked.

We walk out to the car and Thomas and I stick our pets into the back seat. One of our neighbors is outside while we are making sure everything is in the car. "Going on a trip are you?" he asks.

Mum looks around and sees him, "Oh, hello Mr. Beck. I'm not. They're off to boarding school today."

"Boarding school?" he looks at us oddly, "Make sure you learn a lot and have fun." He waves and we climb into the car. We get to King's Cross at 20 'til 11. We grab trolleys and head towards platforms 9 and 10. When we get there, we aren't sure how we should get on the platform. We know how to of course, we just don't know how to get onto the platform without drawing attention.

We stand there thinking for a few minutes when a family of redheads comes rushing past. "Come along. Percy first." The oldest looking boy begins casually walking towards the barrier between the platforms. Just when he looks like he should hit it, he disappears from view.

"Uh, excuse me." Mum walks up to the mother of the family. "But won't people notice?"

"Oh, heavens no. The muggles never pay attention to this sort of stuff." the woman replies. She gestures for two identical boys to go through. And just like the woman said, muggles aren't even paying attention. She gestures to Thomas, "You can go next. Best run if you're nervous." Thomas goes through the barrier and I am about to head through with Mum when Harry appears. He is asking the woman how to get onto the platform. "Just watch this girl, then you can copy her." I hear her say. I grab Mum's hand and we run at the barrier together. I close my eyes just before the barrier and after what feels like only a few more feet, I open my eyes and slow down. Thomas is standing near the red-headed twins and comes over to us.

"Isn't it amazing?" He gestures to the scarlet steam engine in front of us. I look at the wall and see the sign 'Platform 9 and 3/4'. "Come along, we have to get your trunk on the train." Thomas and I haul the trunk into the same compartment he had placed his trunk. We get my trunk into the overhead rack and go to say goodbye to Mum.

"I'll see you guys in June." she says, with tears in her eyes.

"What, have you already decided that we're not coming home for Christmas?" I ask. We exchange hugs and hop back on the train as the whistle is blowing.

Harry is wandering the halls and we offer to share our compartment. The train begins moving slowly and we help him lift his trunk into the rack. He lifts his owl cage up next to Demosthenes.

"Thanks." He says while brushing his bangs out of his eyes. I see a strange scar on his forehead.

"What's that?" I ask, pointing at his forehead.

He gives me a really weird look, like, 'have you been living under a rock?', but answers my question. "It's a scar given to me when I survived a killing curse when I was a baby. My parents were killed so I've lived with my aunt and uncle. I didn't even know magic existed until a month ago."

"Neither did we." Thomas says. "Our mother is a muggle. Our father left, so we don't know if he was a wizard." A moment later, we see one of the redheads wandering the hallway. I open the door and invite him in.

I'm sitting next to Thomas and Harry is across from us. He moves closer to the window, while I help the boy get his trunk up. We sit in awkward silence for a moment before I introduce myself.

"Hi, I'm Gracelynn Dedrick. Call me Gracie."

"Ronald Weasley. Everyone calls me Ron, though."

"Nice to meet you, Ron." I reply. When nothing else happens, I give Thomas a pointed look.

"Oh, hi." Thomas stammers, "I'm Thomas, Gracie's twin brother."

Ron then looks to Harry, "Harry Potter."

"No way." Ron breathes.

Harry simply lifts his hair to show his scar.

"Woah." Ron continues talking. "Do-do you remember what You-Know-Who looked like?"

Thomas and I look at each other in confusion. "Who-Knows-Who?" I ask.

"Do you mean Voldemort?" Harry asks. At the name, Ron flinches.

"What's so bad about a name?" Thomas asks.

"It's just that this guy was a famous murderer and he killed a lot of people." Harry sums up. "The only reason he stopped was because he couldn't kill me and his curse backfired, killing him. Lots of people are still afraid, even though he's dead."

"But," I say, "it's just a name." Harry and Ron try to explain the fear of this man and just when I start to get it, the door opens.

A plump witch sticks her head in, "Anything from the trolley dears?" I stand to look and see all kinds of wizarding treats. Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties.

"One of everything." Harry says from behind me. I step back so he can pay, then ask for four chocolate frogs. Nothing beats chocolate. I sit down and hand two of them to Thomas. Harry is tearing into one of his own and the frog jumps. I shriek.

"Calm down," a voice from the doorway says. "The enchantment wears off when you eat them, they're not real frogs." I turn to see the Malfoy boy from the robe shop. "I heard Harry Potter was in this compartment." He looks between the four of us before his eyes settle on Harry. "Draco Malfoy." He says as he sticks out his hand, "You don't want to be mingling with this riff raff. I can show you who are the right people to hang around."

I groan. He was doing so well, then he becomes a jerk. "What, you're a muggle born aren't you?"

"So what if I am." For some reason I don't want to tell him I don't know if my father was a wizard, "Didn't seem to matter in Diagon Alley. And it doesn't make me any worse than you." I retort.

"Oh, you are worse than me. Just because of that fact." He sneers at me.

"Well, at least I'm not a jerk. You better hope we aren't in the same house." I am clenching my fists in my lap.

"Don't be idiotic, Slytherin doesn't have any muggle borns in it. So you obviously won't be in the same house as me."

I open my mouth to continue arguing, but Thomas speaks up calmly. "Gracie, shut up." I immediately close my mouth. He doesn't yell, but this was almost scarier. I silently beg Malfoy to stand down and leave.

"Do you really want to start petty fights before we are even at school. What if she is in Slytherin? You keep insulting her and you'll be glad you aren't in the same house as me."

"Are you threatening me?" He backs into two goons I hadn't noticed before. They could easily crush all four of us in a fight.

"Thomas," I whisper, "Drop it."

"Get out of here." he says quietly. Malfoy leaves as quickly as he can, while retaining as much of his dignity as he can.

"That was wicked." Ron says. "His family is one of the most important families in league with You-Know-Who. But they claimed Imperius Curse and escaped trial."

We talk for a little while more, when a bushy haired girl, already wearing her robes, opens the compartment door. "Excuse me, have you seen a toad?"

The boys shake their heads, but I check under the seats before I answer. I look under Ron and Harry's seat and see a toad right near the back. "There's one under the seat."

The girl called down the hallway, "Neville, he's in here!" A boy runs down the hall and trips right at the last second.

I managed to get him out from under the seat. "Trevor!" the boy, Neville, exclaims. He takes the toad from my hand, "Thank you."

"No problem." I stick out my hand, "Gracelynn Dedrick. Everyone calls me Gracie."

He takes the hand, "Neville Longbottom."

"Nice to meet you, Neville." I turn to the girl, "And you are...?"

"Oh, Hermione Granger." she says as she shakes my hand.

I point to each of the boys and introduce them, "That's my twin brother, Thomas, red hair and freckles is Ron Weasley, and black hair and green eyes is Harry Potter."

The two are dumbstruck. "Really?" Hermione says, "I've read all about you."

I interrupt what she was going to say next, "Is this why you were surprised when we didn't react to your name at all in Diagon Alley, because everyone reacts like this?"

He nods. I sigh. Hermione begins talking again. "I talked to the conductor earlier. He said we were almost to Hogwarts. You should probably get your robes on."

She turns to leave when I stop her. "Did you want to stay?" Neville had already sat between Harry and Ron and was talking with them.

"I'd love to." She sits between me and Thomas. The boys weren't listening when she was talking, so when I started pulling my robes and uniform out of my trunk, they were confused to why.

"Weren't you listening? We're almost there." They all jump up and try to frantically pull their robes out of their trunks. "Don't rip those, Thomas. We haven't even been there one day." I turn to Hermione, "Come to the loo with me?" In five minutes, we're back and the boys have changed as well.

I sit next to Hermione and talk about Hogwarts with her while the boys talk about Quidditchor something, "Could you explain the houses to me? McGonagall explained them, but I don't remember."

"Well, there are four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, named after the four founders of Hogwarts. They were Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They all had certain traits they looked for in wizards that they wanted to teach. Ravenclaw sought intelligence, Gryffindor sought bravery, Slytherin looked for cunning, and Hufflepuff took all the rest." She paused for a moment. "They are all very noble houses, but they have developed reputations. Gryffindors are believed to be stupid and bullheaded and Slytherin house has produced more dark wizards than any other house. You could read all of this in _Hogwarts: A History_ by Bathilda Bagshot."

"What house you all of you think you'll be in?" I ask.

"My whole family has been in Gryffindor," Ron sighs.

"Gran wants me to be in Gryffindor, but I think I'll be in Hufflepuff." Neville says dejectedly.

"I think I'll be in Ravenclaw." Hermione says, "I'm just looking forward to learning new things."

The train begins slowing down. "Let's stick together, no matter the sorting" I say to the group. When the train finally comes to a stop, we open the doors and follow the flow of people off the train.

"Firs' years over here!" I hear. I turn with Harry to see Hagrid waving a lantern calling for the first years. "How you three doing?" he asks Harry, Thomas, and I. "Did you have a good last week of summer?" At our nods he returns to his job of calling for the first years. When all of them are gathered, I see how huge our year is going to be. There must be more than 100 people milling about, all first years. "All of you climb into the boats. No more than six to a boat." Once we were all in the boats, Hagrid tapped his boat with a floral pink umbrella and we started moving.

After a few minutes of silence, we reach a rocky shore and we all climb out. Hagrid knocks on the door and Professor McGonagall answers. "Thank you, Hagrid." She motions for us to follow her inside. We stop just inside and she talks with us. "In a few minutes, you will be sorted into one of the four equally noble houses. You will need to make friends with people in your house, as they will be your family for the next 7 years." She looks around our group. "I will be back in a moment to fetch you. Prepare yourselves." With that, she walked away and left us in the entrance hall.

People began murmuring among themselves, "How will they sort us? Will it hurt? Is it hard?" I look around at my new friends. Harry looks nauseous. Neville looked about ready to pass out. Hermione seemed to be thinking over every possibility of how we would be sorted. Ron was looking around, making sure everyone else felt the same as him.

I reached for Thomas' hand and squeezed. "We can do this." I whispered, mostly to myself, but also trying to ease any of Thomas' worries.

One rather stressful minute later, McGonagall returned. "Come with me." We all line up and walk behind her into a large room with vaulted ceilings that looked like the night sky, and five tables, containing the students and staff, are all watching us walk in. "I will call you up here, alphabetically by last name, and you will sit on the stool and place this hat on your head." I see the stool for the first time. Sitting on it is the rattiest hat I have ever seen. It looks like it has been patched several times and there appears to be a giant rip just above the rim.

Before McGonagall calls anyone up, the rip opens to a mouth and bursts into song.

"_Oh you may not think I'm pretty,_

_But don't judge on what you see,_

_I'll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can cap them all._

_There's nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can't see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_if you've a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You'll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folks use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!_

_And don't get in a flap!_

_You're in safe hands (though I have none)_

_For I'm a Thinking Cap!_"

The rest of the people in attendance all clap at the hat's song and McGonagall begins calling names.

"Abbott, Hannah."

A pink faced girl with twin pigtails scurries forward. The hat falls over her eyes and after a few seconds, the hat proclaims, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Hannah scurries to the table just to her right as McGonagall calls the next name.

"Ali, Wahida."

An arabic looking girl scurries up to the hat. The hat slips over her eyes and we watch in silence for a few moments until the hat calls out, "Gryffindor!" The girl takes off the hat and walks over to the table on the far left, cheering violently for their new addition.

Once everyone has calmed down, McGonagall calls the next name. "Antoniou, Pavlos."

He sits down and barely after the hat touches his head, it cries out, "Ravenclaw." He walks to the table beside Gryffindor. I grab Thomas' hand, becoming nervous again. Sven Armbrüster is in Hufflepuff and Alexander Atkinson after him is a Gryffindor. He is followed by three Hufflepuffs and then the first Slytherin, Moe Bates. Following him, there is a Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and another Slytherin. I watch all the people walk up to the hat. Some look nervous, others seem confident.

"Dedrick, Gracelynn." McGonagall calls all too soon. I squeeze Thomas' hand before going to put the hat on.

"I see." The hat speaks in my ear. "You are a strong leader, or you hope to be one. If that is true, then your house is SLYTHERIN!"

I slowly place the hat on the stool and walk over to the Slytherin table to join the four first years already sorted there. Sliding into the seat next to one of the only other girls so far, I watch Thomas walk up to the stool. He sits under the hat for only a few seconds before the hat shouts, "HUFFLEPUFF!" I smile at him as he goes to sit with the other first years at the Hufflepuff table.

I watch all my new friends get sorted. Hermione goes to Gryffindor. As does Neville. The hat barely touches Malfoy's head before it proclaims, "SLYTHERIN!" He sneers at me before sitting between the two brutes from the train. I glared at him before watching the rest of the ceremony. Harry and Ron both became Gryffindor and the ceremony finished out with Blaise Zabini being sorted into Slytherin.

McGonagall walked out of the hall with the hat and stool, while an old wizard with a flowing beard stood.

"Welcome," he begins as he looks around the hall. "to the new school year. Just a few rules for the new students, and a reminder for some of the older ones." He looks towards the Gryffindor table in particular at the last part. "The Forbidden Forest," he continues, "is forbidden to all students. I would also like to announce that the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out-of-bounds this year unless you wish to die a most painful death." He looks around the hall smiling, "Those are all the announcements I have, so, if you will, tuck in."

I look to the table to see it laden with food. I pile a little bit of everything on my plate and try to listen the conversation already taking place.

"Yasmine Killam." A very tan girl with dark, tightly curled hair introduced herself. She seemed rather nice.

The girl to my left gave Yasmine a bit of a nasty look. She turns away, muttering something under her breath.

I look at her, "What's your problem?" She looked at me with a sneer then turned away. I look up at Yasmine and see her gaping at me.

"That was so cool." Her eyes were shining with admiration. "I can't even believe the hat put me in Slytherin. I feel like I belong in Ravenclaw. I love learning."

"Don't worry," the fair skinned girl on my right spoke up. "The hat definitely put you in the right place." She was going to put another piece of food in her mouth before she realized what we were waiting for, "Jacquette Giroux. Both my parents were in Hufflepuff and here I am, in Slytherin." Jacquette bumps my arm with hers, "Come on, tell us your story."

"Well," I start, "I'm Gracelynn Dedrick, but I go by Gracie. I came here with my twin brother, Thomas." I shrug. "I'm not that interesting,"

Our conversation continues for a bit longer. We stop when the main courses disappear, only to be replaced by deserts. I go straight for the chocolate pudding. "Come on." Jacquette bumps my arm again. "Tell us more about yourself."

"What about you, Jacquette?" I shoot back, "Why don't you tell us about yourself?" She is about to speak when a ghost appears through the chocolate pudding dish.

An older student a few seats down greets him, "Hello, Bloody Baron."

He nods to her and moves down the table. "That," Yasmine looks between Jacquette and I, "was really weird."

We talk for a little while longer before the old wizard, Dumbledore as I'm told by an older student, stands up again. "It has been a wonderful feast, but it is getting late. Go to your dormitories. Classes will begin tomorrow after breakfast."

Everyone stands at once and suddenly I have no idea where I'm going. "First years follow me." I looked around to see the girl who had greeted the Bloody Baron earlier calling for first years to follow her. I grab Jacquette's hand and Yasmine ducks under the table to grab her other hand. I keep the girl in sight, while pulling Jacquette and Yasmine along. She turns into the dungeons and it gets considerably less crowded. We stop in front of a section of wall that looks no different than the rest. "This is the secret entrance to the Slytherin common room." The girl tells us, "You need the password to get in, but it changes every few weeks. The current password is 'Blood Purity'"

At the phrase, blood purity, the wall slid back, revealing a large room lit by green lights with a green fire and cozy chairs through out. There were windows looking outside, but instead of stars, all I saw was dark water and a fish here and there. We must be beneath the lake we sailed across before the feast.

As I'm marveling at the common room, the girl begins speaking again, "Breakfast starts at 8 and your first class will start at 9. You will need to get your schedule from Professor Snape at breakfast. Girl's dormitories to the right, boys to the left. Your things are already in there." With that, she left to do whatever she wanted.

Jacquette, Yasmine, and I walk towards our dormitories, only to find three doors for first years. We move together to check each door. The three rooms have the same layout. Five, four-poster beds with green curtains around them, arranged in a row along the right side of the room with trunks at the foot of the beds. The third door is where we find our things, more specifically, Merwyn about to tear up the curtains on the third bed from the door, my bed.

I grab him quickly, "You better not tear up these curtains." I tell him. He only looks at me innocently. "Ugh. You're hopeless." I set him on the bed and he immediately falls asleep, purring.

I look at the two beds still unoccupied. I wonder who they could be, and only hope that neither is the girl from dinner.

I hear the door click open and see two girls walk in. One I don't know, but the other is, of course, the girl from dinner.

Before either of us could shout at one another, the unknown girl interrupts, "What are your names?" She looks at the three of us politely. We all introduce ourselves and she does the same, also introducing the girl next to her. "I'm Constance Lebeau and this is Alyssa Croft." She smiles to all of us, "I do hope we can be good friends." She smiled when she said it, but it sounded more like, "We better get along, or else." I turn around and get changed for bed. I slip under the covers and fall asleep almost instantly.

**A.N. - This originated with the thought of thinking there would be more people in each year than 40. The first years are a bigger class than the others. I'm going to say 80 is a common size, but this year is 120. I have names planned for all the students, blood-statuses, but I don't know if I'll use all of them.**

**I thought Malfoy seems like someone who didn't really get to choose his friends when he was younger. That's why I had him want to be friends with them in Diagon Alley. He's still in Madam Malkin's because he's picky and bratty. McGonagall figured they could ask someone from the Leaky Cauldron about getting into Diagon Alley, not expecting they would be able to do it themselves.**

**I realize letting two eleven year olds run around Diagon Alley by themselves is not something any sane parent would do. Their mother trusts that they will protect each other and that many people there would help the two if needed.**

**I think that explains everything you need to know. Again, so sorry about Doll Master of Zero. This is something I know I can write so much better.**


	2. Chapter 2

**This was going to get posted yesterday, but I got distracted so here it is.**

**I don't own Harry Potter**

I roll over and hit the ground. Groaning, I pull myself off the floor and look at the clock on the wall, 7:15.

"What was that?" Alyssa growls from her bed.

"Nothing," I tell her.

"Well, keep your nothing down, I want to sleep as long as possible."

I decide I probably won't get back to sleep again, so I begin getting ready. Before I begin pulling my robes on, I fumble with my tie in the Slytherin colors. Thomas had learned how to tie these, but I had made a habit of mocking him, saying I would never have to wear one. I finally give up and drape it around my neck so I can have Thomas tie it at breakfast.

I find my wand and lay it on my bed, while digging around my trunk for all my textbooks. I find my bag for class and lay it out on my bed. By then it is 7:40 and I hear the other girls moving around. I sit and pet Merwyn while Yasmine and Jacquette get ready. It is 7:50 by the time they are ready for breakfast. I set Merwyn on the bed and start down towards the common room. I look back to see they haven't followed yet. "Aren't you guys hungry?"

"Yeah," Yasmine shifts her feet uncomfortably, "but shouldn't we wait for Constance and Alyssa? You still need to tie your tie anyway."

I sigh, "Alright, but only until 8 o'clock. If they aren't ready then, I'm going down by myself." I pull out my History of Magic textbook and start reading, ignoring her comment.

I'm just getting to the early goblin revolutions when Yasmine tapped on my shoulder, "Ready?" I nod and bring my book with me. We get to the Great Hall at 5 past 8 when almost no one was down there. I sit pretty close to the middle of the Slytherin table, with my back towards the wall. I pile eggs and sausages on my plate, pour myself a glass of orange juice, and begin spreading jam on a piece of toast.

Yasmine and Jacquette sit on either side of me, while Constance and Alyssa sit a little ways down the table. "Hungry much?" Jacquette asks.

"Starving." I tell her. I finish my toast and begin eating my eggs and sausage. I finish eating by 8:30, when everyone else seems to be coming down. I see Thomas walk in and tell Yasmine and Jacquette that I'll be back. I sneak up behind him and ambush him. "Guess who?"

"Gracie, what are you doing?" He says turning around. He sees my untied tie, "Give it here." He holds out his hand and puts it loosely around his neck. A few Hufflepuffs give him odd looks, but don't say anything.

"Coming to say hi. I haven't seen you all night." I pout a little, "It's been so long! I missed you!"

"Yeah right. I bet you were so excited you forgot all about me after I was sorted."

"That's a lie!" I glance back at the Slytherin table to see Alyssa glaring at me. "I better go, one of my housemates doesn't like me talking to you."

"Where are you going?" I turn around and he is holding my tie up. "Come here," He puts it around my neck and tightens it for me. "There. I'll see you later." I give him a quick hug and walk back to the Slytherin table. I take my seat again and continue reading my book.

I read until Professor Snape comes around and hands out timetables. I look at mine and see that we have our afternoon classes with the Hufflepuffs, but the morning are with Gryffindor. "Great."

"What?" Yasmine asks, looking over at me.

"We have morning classes with Gryffindor. All the people I sat with on the train were sorted into Gryffindor. And, one of them has an extreme hatred for Slytherins." I hang my head, "Let's get this over with." I head back to the dorm to grab my books and continue to Professor Snape's dungeon for Potions. The door is locked when I get there, so I wait in the hall alone. Eventually, people began to show up to wait. As soon as 9 o'clock hits, Professor Snape opens the door for us to enter.

I sit down at a table with Yasmine and Jacquette. We are soon joined by a fellow Slytherin, Sammie Southgate. Sammie looks at me pleadingly with blue eyes and his brown hair covers the tops of his ears. His face looks slightly squashed, like someone punched him.

I look around the room and see Harry and Ron sitting with two other boys from Gryffindor. Snape swings the door shut with a bang, and everyone becomes quiet. He starts on a long spiel about potions and asks Harry three questions, rapid fire. Harry obviously doesn't know, but Hermione is dancing in her seat, wanting to answer.

The first potions class could have gone better. Gryffindor lost 10 points for Hermione speaking out of turn and 10 points because the Neville boy managed to melt a hole in the bottom of his cauldron. While we were trying to make a cure for boils, his had only managed to sear the bottom of his shoes. I had managed to gain Slytherin 10 points for being the first one done. When I walked back to my seat, I could feel Ron glaring at me.

I walked out, an hour later, slightly upset. "What's got you in the dumps?" Sammie had caught up to me. Yasmine and Jacquette both had yet to turn in their potions, so I had left without them. "Your potion was brilliant and you finished first in the whole class."

"I know," I sigh, "but, I was kind of friends with Harry and Neville and Hermione on the train ride here. Now I just don't know. Our head of house absolutely loathes Harry. It makes me feel bad that he bullies them so much, but I don't know if they still like me after I was sorted into Slytherin." We get to the common room. "Blood Purity." I walk in and Sammie follows me.

"Do you want to work on the essays Snape gave us already?" He looked at me hopefully. "We still have three hours until lunch."

"Sure." We turn right back around and head to the library.

On our way out, we run into Malfoy. "How did you like Professor Snape's punishment of your 'friends'? They totally deserved it. How idiotic can you be? Melting a hole in your cauldron?" He laughed and headed into the common room.

"Trust me, you don't want to hurt him." Sammie said. Apparently my face gave away everything. "His father is in good with the minister and if you harm one hair on his head, he'll run to father and you could be expelled. If you're lucky, you might get detention for a month."

"A month of detention is _lucky_?" I ask incredulously. Sammie nods. "It would be more pleasant to help Peeves." He looks at me in fear. "Don't worry, I would never help Peeves. Unless it would be annoying for Malfoy, then I might consider it." We walk into the library to start working on the essay for Snape.

"I can't believe he gave us an essay for us to address how Neville went wrong and a separate essay about all the uses of this potion. Isn't the first one a little insensitive?" Sammie asks.

"Yeah, well, he's the teacher. He's allowed to be insensitive and unfair. Doesn't make it right though. I don't understand how he can assign this essay, since he can't give it to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tomorrow. Unless, they have someone mess up the same."

"Snape must be counting on something like that," Sammie says as he crosses out a word at the top of his essay.

"Which I doubt will happen since Hufflepuff is far superior to Slytherin." I hear from behind me. I turn around to see Thomas and another Hufflepuff boy standing behind me.

Sammie looks insulted, but when I return the insult, he calms down, "Oh, really? I've heard that Hufflepuff is the worst house?" We smile at each other, "Sammie, meet my brother, Thomas. Thomas, this is a fellow Slytherin, Sammie Southgate."

They nod to each other and Thomas introduces his friend, "This is Benedict Ayers."

Benedict had sandy blonde hair and hazel eyes. He was slightly taller than Thomas, but not by much.

"Do you want to sit with us?" I ask. Sammie looked a little apprehensive, but accepts my decision. They sit down and pull out _Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1_, and a giant roll of parchment. "I don't think I want to go to Charms tomorrow."

"We _were_ only going to have 10 inches, but then, right before the end of class, Staci Daugherty and Cathryn Barker managed to get into a stupid fight and they sent Professor Flitwick flying, so he added 5 inches." Benedict explains bitterly.

"Moral of the story," Sammie says, "don't send Flitwick flying."

We all set to writing our essays and an hour later, I put a period on at the end with a flourish. "Done. 10 inches."

The three boys look at me incredulously, "How can you be done?" Sammie looks over at my essay. "You write tiny. I've only got 7 inches and my handwriting is gigantic."

"I also thought over how he could have fixed it." I say sheepishly.

"You are a potions prodigy." He looks back at his essay. "Can I read yours over? I want to see if I have this right." I wave him on and pull out _A History of Magic_, and begin reading. Sammie interrupts a moment later, "I can't believe you're reading that for fun. Especially when you have another essay to write."

"You've only had one class!" Thomas exclaims. Madam Pince glares at him, he lowers his voice to a whisper and continues, "How could possibly have two essays?"

"Professor Snape is a cruel man." Sammie says as he continues to work on his essay.

"Neville melted the bottom of his cauldron, so we had to write 10 inches on why his potion went wrong."

"And this," Sammie holds up my essay, "is her essay, and this is mine." His is 10 inches, but his writing got bigger and more spaced out for the last 3 inches.

I look at the clock, "We have two hours until lunch, I can do it." I pull my potions things out again. "Possible uses of the Cure for Boils." I say as I scan the pages.

In the following hour and a half, I get the second essay written. The final half hour I spend reading _A History of Magic_. After we pack up, we walk to the Great Hall together, but go to our separate tables. I sit down next to Sammie, but I am mobbed by Yasmine and Jacquette.

"Where have you been?" Yasmine asks. "Did he abduct you?" She suddenly became very protective, "Don't you hurt her."

"Yasmine, calm down, he didn't abduct me. We were working on the essays Professor Snape had assigned.

"Just so you guys know," Sammie interjects, "she finished both essays in three hours, and her handwriting is miniscule."

Jacquette finally speaks up, "You've already finished them?! They're not even due until Wednesday."

I pile food on my plate as I answer them, "Our Defense Against the Dark Arts homework won't be due until next week, but you know I'm going to do it, tonight." They looked at me, horrified, "You guys need to remember, I didn't know about magic until a month before the term started. I'm excited to do my magic homework at my magic school."

They look at me like I'm crazy. Then, Sammie shrugs and begins eating. We finish lunch and head to Defense Against the Dark Arts. We are the first few people there, so we wait outside the door, talking quietly. Professor Quirrell appears and lets us in, all while looking around nervously.

We walk in and the tables are all two to a table. Jacquette and Yasmine sit together, so I sit with Sammie. Thomas and Benedict walk in and sit one table over from Sammie and me. We get out our textbooks, _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_, and wait patiently for Professor Quirrell to start the lesson. He talks in a halting stutter about a summation of the course. He has us open our textbooks to page 12 and begins a halting lecture on relatively safe spells.

One painful hour later, we walk out with 8 inches on _Vermillious _and _Verdimillious_ and what their uses are. Thomas catches up to Sammie and I as we walk towards the library. Jacquette and Yasmine have decided to do their homework later.

"That was painful." He says as we walk towards the library.

"Tell me about it." I smile at him, "I was about ready to read my textbook."

"She was," Sammie pipes in, "I was thinking she was going to punch something with all the times she clenched and unclenched her hands in her lap."

"Thomas was doing the same thing." Benedict interjects. Up until that point, I hadn't even realized he was with us.

We reach the library and settle into a table, and I pulled out _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection._ After reading up on _Vermillious _and _Verdimillious_. I managed to finish the essay in an hour and a half.

Looking around, I see that only Sammie, Thomas, Benedict, and I are mixing houses. I see a few people glaring at us, mostly Slytherins, but everyone else was ignoring us. Re-reading over my essays, I put them away and pull out the history of magic textbook.

A little while later, I hear people moving around and papers shuffling. I look up to see that it is almost dinner time. Packing all my things up, I stand with Sammie. "Should we take our bags to the common room, or do we take them to dinner?"

Sammie looks at the clock. "We have 10 minutes until dinner, let's take them to the common room. I still need to work on DADA, but I can do that tomorrow." I look at him in confusion, "DADA." he repeats, "Defense Against the Dark Arts."

We walk to the entrance hall with Thomas and Benedict, but go our separate ways to our own common rooms. Sammie and I drop our things off and make the quick trek back up to the Great Hall. I go and sit next to Yasmine and Jacquette, while Sammie sits between myself and Walter Roscoe. We keep up a steady conversation about classes and homework. Before long, we're all stuffed and Sammie and I are walking back to the common room.

"Oh no you don't." Yasmine catches us. "All you've done is work in the library."

"We aren't going to the library," I say, "But I've got all the essays done already."

"You what?" Yasmine asks, "Nevermind. We need to have some fun. We're going to play Exploding Snap in the common room."

"What?" I say in confusion as she pulls me towards the common room.

"Exploding Snap," Jacquette answers, "Have you ever played?"

I shake my head and Sammie follows willingly, "You need to play this game. Trust me."

We played two rounds of the game before I got the hang of it. In the third round, I beat Jacquette soundly, which wasn't much of a feat seeing as she was terrible at the game. After a few more rounds, I was able to beat Yasmine and Sammie as well. It was well past curfew, so we couldn't go back to the library, so I decided to go to bed. On my way up, I notice Malfoy sneering at me.

The next morning, I wake up early and go in search of a shower. I could take one in the bathroom our room shared, but I didn't want to test my chances of being hexed by Alyssa. I get to the common room and am just about to leave when a voice stops me.

"Where are you going at this hour?" Turning, I see Malfoy sitting in a chair by the fireplace, working on one of the potions essays.

"What does it matter to you?" I ask, wanting to leave, but not doing so for some unknown reason.

"It matters because _I_ don't want you losing Slytherin any house points." He says with that stupid sneer.

"Oh, like I won't get any in Charms or Transfiguration today?" I retort. I don't wait for him to respond, and I storm out of the common room.

I start walking with no destination, and find myself in front of the painting of a bowl of fruit. I find it puzzling, because most wizard paintings have the subjects moving, but I don't know how this one would be any different than a muggle painting. I reach up and lightly brush the pear, when it starts moving and giggling.

I jump back and the painting swings open. I step through and find hundreds of little creatures, all wearing what appears to be old pillowcases and ratty sheets. They are all preparing food that I saw yesterday at breakfast.

One walks up to me, "How can we help the young miss? Would you like something to eat?" I realize I am in the kitchens. These little creatures must make the meals.

I realize that the little thing is waiting for an answer, "Um, could someone show me to a shower?" The little thing bows and leads me back out the portrait hole and to a bathroom on the second floor. It is about to leave before I stop it, "Excuse me, but what are you?"

"I is Binky, miss." she answers.

"And, what is Binky?"

"Binky is a house elf, miss." She bows to me, "If that is all, Binky must be getting back to the kitchens."

"Yes, thank you." Binky leaves, but not before giving me a horrified look. I shrug and get into the shower.

It gets to be 7:30 and I realize that I should return to the common room, before Yasmine and Jacquette freak out about someone else abducting me. I get dressed and try to dry my hair when I see a ghost. But this ghost wasn't at the welcome ceremony. She is looking at me puzzledly.

"Why would you be in here?" she asks.

"I was showering." I tell her, "Is that ok?"

"Yes," she answers slowly, "It's just, no one usually comes in here. They say I haunt the bathroom."

"Oh," I don't know what to say to that, "Well, I have to get to breakfast, but I'll come every morning to talk to you if you want."

"I'd like that," she says wistfully as I leave. I get back to the dormitory and find Yasmine and Jacquette just waking up. I change into clean robes and wait for them to wake up fully. By the time they are ready, Alyssa and Constance had already left. We walk down to breakfast and are quiet most of the time.

"Ready for Charms?" Sammie suddenly asks us three girls and we all jump. I stand and Yasmine and Jacquette follow my lead. We grab our things and head to the charms classroom.

I sit next to Sammie again and we patiently sit through a lecture of the usefulness of the wand-lighting charm. Flitwick closes the windows for the last half hour so we could practice. I can barely manage any light, but apparently it's better than everyone else can achieve, so Flitwick awards me 10 points. I see Ron glaring at me again, and he seems to have convinced Harry that all Slytherins are the root of all evil and had him glaring at me as well.

"10 inches on wand-lighting!" Yasmine complains as we leave. "And we have to practice the charm for Thursday!"

"At least it's not 15 inches," Sammie says with a smile.

Yasmine looks horrified, "Why would you even suggest that?"

Sammie and I head to the library, fully expecting Yasmine and Jacquette to leave for the common room. They instead came to the library with us. We get there and claim a table, but encounter a problem when Thomas and Benedict arrive.

"I'll sit at a table with them," Sammie offers. I move to sit with them as well and he stops me, "No," he orders, "Stay, talk about girl things."

"That boy with your brother is kind of cute." Jacquette says mostly to herself. I sigh and continue working on my charms essay. I get to 4 inches and don't know what else to write.

"I'll be right back," I tell them as I get up to go to the boys table. "Hey, Thomas, what did you write in your charms essay?"

He looks up from what appears to be a potions essay. "The wand-lighting one?" I nod. "Here." He hands me the essay, "Just make sure you give it back, I have that class tomorrow."

I take it back to the table and read through it. I understood the part where you could light up dark places, but he remembered that you could fend off creatures that were afraid of or bothered by bright light. Within a half hour I had rephrased his essay into mine. And it only ended up being 11 inches.

I take Thomas' essay back to him and right before I'm going to sit down, he stops me, "Hey, can I see your potions essay? The one about the uses of the potion." Bringing it back, he thanks me, "I'll give it back before lunch."

"Sure," I'm about to sit down, when I remember something, "Can I use Demosthenes to send a letter to Mum?" He waves his hand in a 'go ahead' manner and I go to sit down.

"How can you be done already?" Jacquette and Yasmine are incredulous.

"Keep it down," I whisper, "Madam Pince doesn't like people talking." I pull out all the essays we had been assigned, only one of which Jacquette and Yasmine had each finished. "Which one are you guys working on?"

"The failings essay for potions."

I hand over the essay, "Just don't copy word for word." I begin writing a letter to Mum and finish just as it is time for lunch. I gather up the essays and walk with Thomas and Benedict to the Great Hall. Just before we go our separate ways, I remember a question I had for Benedict.

"Hey, Benedict," he looks at me, "I had a question, today I found the kitchens totally by accident and all these little creatures were working there. What were they?"

He answers with what seems like no thought, "They were probably house-elves. Did they wear old pillowcases and such." I nod, "Yeah, they were house-elves."

"Ok, then one showed me to a bathroom and when I thanked her she gave me a horrified look. Why?"

He winced, "They don't really want to be treated as an equal to wizards. They're almost like slaves, but they like it."

I thank him and walk over to the Slytherin table. Lunch is a quiet affair and we head to Transfiguration. McGonagall is stern and gets us quiet when we sit down. Our first Transfiguration class is nothing but notes, as we learn the alphabet used in Transfiguration formulas and the basics of the formula. We leave the class with the homework of making a basic formula with what we know. Sammie and I walk to the library in silence with Thomas and Benedict. Yasmine and Jacquette decided that one morning in the library was enough.

"That is going to be a difficult class." Benedict finally breaks the silence. We all nod in agreement." I spend the three hours before dinner trying to figure it out and I still haven't, when we head down to the Great Hall after dropping off our bags, I take _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_ with me to see if I can figure it out.

Dinner is over and Yasmine drags me to the common room to play Exploding Snap again. I spend the trip to the common room with my nose in the book. "Blood Purity" I hear Yasmine say, then the formula clicks in my brain. I push past her up to our dormitory. I find a piece of parchment and quickly jot down what I realized. I shove it in my bag to work on tomorrow. I ruffle Merwyn's fur and walk back down to the common room.

Yasmine and Sammie are waiting to play Exploding Snap. After one round, I excuse myself so I can get to the Owlery and back before curfew.

I grab my letter and leave, and once I realize I have no idea where I'm going, I head to the kitchen. Tickling the pear, I walk in and ask Binky to show me to the Owlery. She takes me all the way up to the West tower and after dismissing her, I call for Demosthenes. He comes down to land on a stone platform in the middle of the room. "I need you to take this to mum, can you do that for me." he blinks at me. I tie the letter to his leg, "Ok, go on." He flies off and I head back to the common room.

I walk in to find Sammie and Yasmine still going at it in Exploding Snap. They also seemed to have gotten Walter Roscoe and Ziv Samson to join in. I head up to the dormitory and grab my Transfiguration homework. I draw the curtains and begin working out the formula. By the time I hear the other girls walk in, I have it figured out. I go to sleep and hope for the best tomorrow.

Only a few hours later, Jacquette is waking me up, "What's going on?" I ask, rubbing my eyes.

"We have Astronomy. Don't you remember?" Jacquette asks.

I quickly jump out of bed and pull on my robes. We make the trek up to the Astronomy tower with our telescopes and star charts. When we get to the top, I realize that we have this class with all of the first years.

Professor Sinistra has us focus our telescopes on the sky and write down all our observations. For an hour, all I do is stare at what I think is Mars and note how many stars I see. When Sinistra dismisses us, we all walk down the stairs. I end up next to Benedict.

"What did you find in our hour of observation?" he asks me in fake seriousness.

"Well, on September 4th at 12:13 am, there are twenty stars around Mars." I answer, putting on a posh attitude. We laugh and continue down the stairs. "Oh, Benedict," He turns just as he is about to walk to the Hufflepuff common room, "Do house elves dislike being told that they've done a good job, or is that ok?"

He thinks for a moment, "They actually love being told that they have done good work, they just don't like being treated as an equal." I thank him and run to catch up to Yasmine and Jacquette. We talk a little bit about Astronomy and go straight to sleep when we get to the dormitory.

I wake up at 6 and head to the bathroom from yesterday for a shower. When I am done showering, I sit on the sinks and talk to the ghost, finding out her name is Myrtle and she died in this very bathroom when she was in school at Hogwarts. I talked with her until 7:30, when I went back to the common room to wait for Jacquette and Yasmine.

I sit in the common room, reading my history of magic textbook, not knowing what to expect from the actual class today. Malfoy snatches the book from my hands, "You really enjoy this?" he sneers at me. "I can't believe such a bookworm got put in Slytherin. You should be in Ravenclaw." He laughs, "Then again, I can't believe a muggleborn got put in Slytherin either."

"Oh. Are we back to the muggleborn insult?" I ask in mock surprise. "Is there no possibility that I could be a half-blood?"

"None at all." He answers quickly, "You act too much like a muggle."

"Hmmm. That couldn't possibly be because I don't know who my father is and grew up with only my muggle mum." I say, letting my anger get the best of me and letting it slip out.

Malfoy is speechless for a moment, then he regains himself and begins laughing. The tears start coming then. I grab my book and bag, hit Malfoy in the face, and run to Myrtle's bathroom.

I sit in Myrtle's stall crying while she tries to comfort me. I manage to get my sobs down to just a few tears running down my face. I tell Myrtle all about what Malfoy did. She tries her best to console me and she calls Malfoy all kinds of stupid names that put a smile on my face.

I bid Myrtle goodbye and deciding I'd rather not go to the Great Hall, I go to the kitchen to get some food. Binky gets me some toast, jam, some sausages, and a few eggs and sits me down at a table to eat. I eat the food and almost thank her before I remember what Benedict said.

"The food was delicious," Binky beams at me, "I had better get to class though," I tell Binky, as I stand. Binky bows and leads me to the door.

"Have a good day, miss." Binky waves me off.

Because I didn't go to the Great Hall, I didn't know how many people would be at the potions dungeon. I get there to find no one. The door is locked, so I sit on the floor and wait.

I only wait a few minutes until Hermione shows up with Neville. A few minutes after them, more Gryffindors show up. It is only minutes before class starts that the Slytherins start showing up.

The last student to show up before Snape was Malfoy. I see a black circle around his left eye from when I hit him. When he saw me, he made a beeline for me.

"I'm sorry for everything I said and did this morning that may have offended you. Please accept my apology." The entirety of our class stood dumbstruck at what this boy had done. Most of us hadn't known him more than two days, but we knew that was something he'd never do of his own volition.

I feel an elbow in my side and I quickly accept the apology. He walks to stand by his two goons and pointedly looks everywhere but at me. Snape opens the door and we all file in quietly. I sit next to Sammie and pull out my parchment ink and quills. He collects our two essays from Monday, then lectures for the next hour on the 12 uses of dragon blood. We leave with another 12 inches on all the uses of dragon blood.

"What was up with Malfoy?" Jacquette wonders aloud as we leave the dungeons. That must mean the none of the first years knew what happened with Malfoy this morning.

"I don't know," Sammie looks at the two of them, "Are you guys coming to the library again today?"

Yasmine shakes her head, "I have to work on the charms essay and the transfiguration formula, but I think I'll work better in the common room." We part ways and Sammie and I continue to the library.

"Do you know what Malfoy was going on about?" Sammie asked once we were out of earshot of Yasmine and Jacquette.

I do my best to put on an innocent face, "Not at all."

He nudges my arm, "Come on, tell me. I promise I won't tell Yasmine or Jacquette." He sees the look on my face and quickly adds, "Or anyone, I can take this secret to the grave."

"Well, I may or may not have told him I don't know my father and he may or may not have laughed. So I hit him and ran away." I say quietly.

"Oh, so that's how he got the black eye. He told us that he fell down the stairs." We continued walking, "Do you know why he apologized?"

"Not a clue." We walk in the library and Thomas and Benedict wave us over to their table, "How did you get here before us?"

"Flitwick let us out early." Thomas is bouncing in excitement, "Did you see Malfoy's face?"

"We did." Sammie answers, "The weirdest thing happened though, Malfoy apologized to Gracie before class. Any idea what that was about?"

Benedict snickers while Thomas answers, trying to maintain a straight face, "Ah, yes. I may or may not have threatened him with painful death if he didn't find my sister right away and apologize."

"But how did you know?" I ask, while trying to keep a smile off my face.

Thomas had a face that practically screamed, 'do you think I'm stupid?' "You weren't at breakfast and Malfoy had a black eye."

"So, is that why Malfoy ran out of the Great Hall after you talked to him?" Sammie asks.

"I would hope so," With that, we all began working on our homework. Two hours later, I've finished my essay I pull out my history of magic textbook. "Are you ready for that class today?" Thomas asks without even looking up from his Transfiguration textbook. I nod excitedly. "I just hope that it's not as boring as the older students say." Thomas sighs as he continues with his formula.

After lunch, we all get to History of Magic and find that Professor Binns is a ghost, and a very boring one at that. He blandly spends the entire hour lecturing on the Goblin Revolution in which Elfric the Eager took part in. At the end of class he gave us an essay about the goblin revolution and how Elfric caused it to work at first.

"That," Yasmine announced as we left, "is going to be the most boring class ever." She and Jacquette stretched their arms over their heads, "Got a nice nap in though. What was the lecture about?"

I shake my head and look at the three boys walking with us. They all looked at me sheepishly. "Did you three sleep too?" I exclaim. At their nods I sigh in resignation, "Fine, I'll share my notes." They all look excited, "But I'm not sharing my essay. I'll read your guys' over, but you aren't copying my work in that class."

"Come on, Gracie," Thomas pleads, "It's not like old Binns would ever notice." The five of them continue to try and convince me. We get to the end of the corridor and Thomas and Benedict are beginning to leave us.

"Where are you guys going?" I stop walking.

"Flying lessons." Thomas says grimly. I can already tell that he has no desire to be on the quidditch team. I couldn't wait for flying lessons tomorrow. Ever since Yasmine explained the basics of the game to me, all I wanted was to be on the house team.

I wish them luck while the rest of us continue to the library. The rest of the way there, Sammie, Yasmine, and Jacquette continue trying to convince me.

"Not happening," I say as we all sit down. We sit in silence for an hour, trying to work on the 8 inches for history of magic.

It takes me about an hour to finish the essay. I figure that Thomas must be done with flying lessons by now, so I pack up my things with the intent to find him, leaving Sammie, Jacquette, and Yasmine to continue work on their essays. I get to the entrance hall to wait for him, but I am ambushed by Malfoy.

"Can I talk to you?" he asks quietly.

I look around suspiciously, but I don't see his two goons anywhere. The only people in the entrance hall are us and a few older students coming back from a class outside. "What is it?"

"Everything that happened this morning," he starts, "Please don't tell anyone. It would probably circle back around and somehow my father would hear about it. I don't want to think about what he would do to me if he found out a girl gave me a black eye."

He seems about to continue when I interrupt him, "Trust me, I won't tell anyone how you really got the black eye. The only people that know are me and you." 'And Sammie and Thomas and Benedict,' I add in my head.

He looks visibly relieved. "Good." He is about to go off to wherever he needed to be, when he turns around, "You have a pretty strong punch," he adds with a slight smile. And he leaves in the direction of the common room. I stand dumbfounded until Benedict and Thomas walk past me.

"Hey," I run after them, "How was flying lessons?" Thomas glares at me, so I look to Benedict.

"Apparently Thomas is really good at flying, so Madam Hooch plans on telling Professor Sprout and she might put him on the house team next year." Benedict seems to be trying his hardest not to laugh.

"That's wonderful, Thomas." I tell him.

"No, it's not. I don't want to play the game, I want to watch the game." he remarks bitterly.

"OK. Maybe you won't make the team next year." I try to comfort him. I suddenly remember my conversation with Malfoy, "Oh, you know what happened this morning, with Malfoy?" They nod, "Could you not tell anyone. Apparently Malfoy's father wouldn't think well of him getting a black eye from a girl."

They look at me weird, but dismiss it. "If you don't mind," Thomas says, "We're going to go to our common room to get cleaned up before dinner." I let them leave and wander the castle until it is time for dinner.

I go sit down between Sammie and Jacquette, with Yasmine on her other side and begin pulling food onto my plate. We sit in a comfortable silence. When we are finished, we head back to the common room. I'm done with all my homework and don't really feel like playing exploding snap, so I tell them I'm going to get a book from the library. Sammie comes with me, which I find as the perfect opportunity.

As we walk through the halls, I bring up the subject, "You know what happened with Malfoy," he nods slowly, "I need you to not tell anyone. Malfoy might get in trouble with his father if he finds out." Sammie looks at me in confusion, "I may want to get back at him, but I want to do it personally, not through his father." He agrees grudgingly.

I check out a book on magical inventions through the years and we return to the common room. I see Malfoy roll his eyes at me when I walk in, but I ignore it.

Breakfast the next morning was an event. Just after the mail arrived, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle saunter over to the Gryffindor table. Malfoy takes something from Neville's hand, causing Ron and Harry to almost immediately jump to their feet. Professor McGonagall, who is able to detect a fight from a hundred feet away, swoops in and Malfoy reluctantly drops the object back into Neville's hand and saunters back to the Slytherin table.

In Charms, we work more on the wand-lighting charm and Flitwick builds on it with Lumos Solem, which is the stronger spell, used for defending against plants like Devil's Snare. We manage to escape with no homework, but Transfiguration had us working with slightly more complex transfiguration formulas, and we were given a formula and we had to identify and give reasoning for what we were transfiguring with it.

I walk to the library with Sammie and we attempt to work on the homework for Transfiguration but we can't get much done. By the time I start to get on a roll, we have to leave for flying lessons.

"Good luck with Malfoy." Thomas says as we leave. It was well known among the first years that Malfoy was a self-centered idiot that bragged all about his prowess in the air.

I walk with Sammie to the courtyard where we are having flying lessons. Yasmine and Jacquette show up a minute later and we all stand together, waiting for the lesson to begin.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle to get everyone's attention. "Alright, now, everyone stand to the left of a broom." When everyone was next to a broom, she instructed us to place our right hand over the broom and say 'up!'

On only my second try, the broom jumped into my hand. Looking around, I saw Hermione and Neville having problems, but I couldn't see if any of the Slytherins were having problems without moving. A few minutes later, everyone had a broom in their hand. Madam Hooch explained how to mount it and how to kick off from the ground.

"On my whistle, I want everyone to kick off from the ground, hover, and land." She looked around to make sure we understood. "Alright. One...Two..." She was just about to blow her whistle when Neville just started gently lifting off from the ground. "Boy, get down here." But Neville just kept rising.

When he was about 20 feet in the air, he slipped from his broom. He fell straight to the ground and I heard a faint snap from where I stood. Madam Hooch rushed over to help him and discovered a broken wrist.

"Everyone is to keep both feet firmly on the ground until I return. I'm taking Mr. Longbottom to the Hospital Wing. If anyone's feet get even a foot off the ground, they will be expelled faster than you can say 'Quidditch'" She walked off helping Neville.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Malfoy starts making rude remarks, "Can't believe he fell off his broom." He continued along that vein and laughed at each one.

"Shut up, Malfoy." a Gryffindor girls snaps.

Pansy laughs shrilly, "Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom? Never thought you would have a thing for crybabies, Parvati."

Malfoy looks at the ground, "Oh, look, Longbottom lost his Remembrall. Maybe I should put it somewhere he can find it."

"Give it here, Malfoy." Harry says, trying to sound threatening.

"Maybe I'll put it in a tree." Malfoy laughs as he rises gracefully on his broom. Harry takes off after him.

I can't take it so I mount my broom, and just before I take off, Sammie stops me, "Madam Hooch said you would be expelled if you left the ground."

"I can't just let them cause trouble up there, now can I?" I shake his hand off and take off. I hear a few Gryffindors calling to Harry that he was outnumbered and should be careful. I had never been openly hostile to any Gryffindors, if anything, they were hostile towards me.

Malfoy and Harry are arguing in midair. I pull up between them and cuff them over the head. It must have been pretty hard, seeing as Malfoy dropped the Remembrall. Harry dove after it and Malfoy went to stop him, I grab his arm, "It wouldn't take much," I tell him, "One sentence and it all gets out. I can see it now, 'I punched Draco Malfoy. He lied about falling down the stairs.' Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" He jerks away and we descend to the ground.

We land just as Harry landed and McGonagall comes running out. "POTTER! DEDRICK! I can't believe both of you were so irresponsible!" she shouted at us. Apparently Malfoy got out of being yelled at. Probably because he didn't do anything as reckless as Harry and I. "The two of you come with me right now." She marched off without even waiting to see if we were following.

"I can't believe I'm already expelled and it's only the first week." I mumble. I hear Harry say something along the lines of him agreeing and how his relatives will find it hilarious.

McGonagall takes us first to Professor Flitwick's room and asks for Wood. Out comes a burly fifth year with a confused look on his face. "Wood, I've found you a seeker." McGonagall tells him proudly.

Harry had been standing slightly behind me, so this Wood fellow looks even more confused. "Professor, this girl is in Slytherin."

"No, no, no," McGonagall quickly pulls Harry forward, "Harry caught that thing in his hand from a 50 foot dive. Not even Charlie Weasley could pull off a move like that." She beamed. "Now, Wood, you must get back to class. Harry, you should as well. I must be going to find Professor Snape."

She walks off and I look at Harry hopefully, maybe he can save me. He simply shrugs and heads back to the courtyard. I sigh and follow McGonagall to Snape's dungeon. She sticks her head in the room and finds a class working on a potion. "Severus, if I could speak with you?" A moment later, Snape glides out of the classroom and sees me standing with McGonagall, and I could see the disdain enter his face.

"What did you need, Minerva?" He asked while looking at me.

"I believe that Ms. Dedrick would be an exemplary beater." He turned to McGonagall curiously, "She managed to rise 50 feet in the air and cuff two boys in the head on her first time riding a broom."

"Thank you, Minerva. I will take care of it." McGonagall walks away and Snape turns to me, "She knows we need two good beaters, but one will have to do for now." He gestures for me to follow him as he re-enters the dungeon. He walks straight to one of the Slytherins sitting near the far wall, "Flint, this is Gracie Dedrick, she will be one of your beaters this year. Show her the ropes of quidditch after dinner tonight,"

Flint looks at me and gives a grunt, "Meet me in the entrance hall after dinner."

I nod and scurry out of the dungeon and back to the courtyard to find Madam Hooch just letting the class leave. I sneak up to Sammie, "I just made the Slytherin quidditch team," I say quietly.

He looks at me in surprise and pulls me to the library. We find Thomas and Benedict and we sit down with them. "Ok, explain." Sammie orders. Thomas and Benedict just look confused.

"So McGonagall saw the whole thing, and she thought Harry was great seeker material. She also thought that since I was able to hit both of them at the same time 50 feet in the air, that I was great beater material. So she took me to Snape and now I'm going to learn the basics of quidditch after dinner tonight." I say quietly.

Benedict stands, "I'll be right back," He gets up and walks between two shelves and comes back a moment later with a book. "You might want this," He hands me _Quidditch Through the Ages_, "It explains everything about the game." I nod and go check it out with Madam Pince.

I spend the next few minutes reading through it and then walk to dinner to continue reading it. I manage to learn the basic rules before I need to meet Flint. "Take this up to the dormitory for me, will you?" I ask Jacquette as we leave the Great Hall.

"Where are you going?" Yasmine asks.

"Sammie will explain," I tell her, "I gotta go." I stand in the entrance hall waiting for Flint. I wait five minutes before Flint struts out of the Great Hall.

"Come on then," He leads me to the quidditch pitch as he tells me the rules along the way. We get a trunk out of the shed and he tells me all about everything in there.

He then hands me a bat, "Here you go." he says with a smirk on his face as he lets one of the bludgers out. It comes straight at me and I swing the bat with all my might. I figured I might as well aim for the center hole of one of the posts at the end of the pitch. Much to my surprise, I hit my mark and the bludger came back around. Flint leaps on it and wrestles it back into the trunk.

"You're pretty good," He admits. "All you need to do during games is stop those from hitting our team and try to hit them towards the other team." We put the trunk back and walk back up to the castle. I feel slightly uncomfortable being alone with him, but I try to deal with it. Suddenly, he tries to attack me. I end up punching him in the nose and I feel blood on my knuckles. "You've got pretty good reflexes." And we continue to the common room. I wipe the blood off on my robes and people freak out when they see him bleeding.

"What happened?" A frantic sixth year girl asks.

He opens his mouth to answer, but I interrupt, "Slipped on the stairs. He wouldn't go to the Hospital Wing though."

"We were almost back to the common room when it happened and it's almost curfew. I didn't want to be caught by Filch," He protests, catching me trying to save face for him.

"As long as you weren't near the trophy room you would have been fine." Malfoy says from the stairs to the boys dormitories. "Filch got a tip that there would be students meeting there."

I knew Malfoy was the tip, but I didn't feel like burning that bridge just yet. "Whatever," I shrug. "Get that nose taken care of, Flint." I walk up the stairs to my dormitory and pass out immediately.

"Time to get up," Yasmine says the next morning.

I look at the clock, "What are you doing up at this hour? It's 5:50."

"I need a shower, but I don't know where one is. You do though. So you're taking me to the shower." She tells me cheerfully.

"You could use the one we share with the other girls." I suggest as I roll over.

"And risk making Alyssa mad at me? Not a chance."

I drag myself out of bed and take her to Myrtle's bathroom. "Here we are. This is where I've been showering." I go to one of the showers and Yasmine gets into the other one. It is silent except for the running water for a few moments, then Yasmine screams.

"What is it?" I ask quickly.

"There's a spider in here." she whimpers pathetically.

I groan, "And I thought it was something serious."

"Oh, it's quite serious, Gracie," I hear Myrtle say from the drain in my shower, "It's the size of a galleon." I sigh and grab a towel. I squish the spider for Yasmine and I return to my shower. I finish quickly and sit talking to Myrtle while Yasmine finishes.

When she gets out of the shower, I get up to leave, but then she goes to the sink to put on make up. I groan and sit down again. It is 7:30 by the time she is done and we had been in the bathroom since 6:20.

We return to the common room and she goes upstairs to continue getting ready. I sit in the common room reading _Quidditch Through the Ages_ until she and Jacquette come down the stairs. I run upstairs to put the book away and we leave for breakfast.

At breakfast, I receive my first piece of mail. It is a short letter from Hagrid, asking if I would like to meet him for tea after my last class today. I borrow someone's quill and answer, 'Yes, I would love to' and send it back out with the owl.

We sit through double potions, where we cover more of the 12 uses of dragon blood and Snape has us brew a Forgetfulness potion. We leave and Malfoy approaches me, "So you're a beater now?" He asks in the way only he can ask a question and still sound like a prick.

"Yeah, and you're not on the team." I retort, "Imagine that."

With that I walk away to work on potions in the library. We must specifically choose one of the 12 uses and detail how it was discovered and why it is important. We head to lunch two hours later and then Herbology.

We work with bouncing bulbs during our first class and Professor Sprout assigns us an essay about where bouncing bulbs best grow and what they are most commonly used for. I ask Sammie if he wants to come to Hagrid's for tea with me and he decides that he would love to, rather than work in the library. Thomas must have invited Benedict along, because the four of us walked down to Hagrid's hut.

We knock and when Hagrid opens the door, we are attacked by a giant dog, "Get down, Fang." I hear Hagrid say, "They don' want ya up on them." he pulls the dog off of us. "Hullo, Thomas, Gracie."

"Hello, Hagrid," we say together.

We introduce our friends and we sit and talk for about a minute when there is another knock. Hagrid opens the door and greets his additional guests, "Hullo Harry!" I groan inwardly, because if Harry is here, then so is...

"And you're a Weasley aren't you?" Hagrid asks.

"This is Ron, Hagrid." Harry introduces his own friend.

"Well come in you two." I would try to escape, but Fang has decided that my leg is the best and has set his head on it.

"Hello, Harry, Ron," I say nervously, Harry returns my greeting without a smile, but Ron just glares at me. I turn to Hagrid, "So, how have you been?" I ask. We all feel the tension, except for Hagrid, he seems to think we are getting along just fine. Hagrid asks us questions about our first week and everyone but Ron tries to make conversation. After one long, painful hour, Sammie and I excuse ourselves to go do homework.

I don't actually work on homework but I read _Quidditch Through the Ages_ for a bit before dinner. Afterwards, I collapse into my bed and fall asleep almost instantly.

**And there is Chapter 2. Flame, compliment, question my sanity, just please review. I hope you guys like this.**


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